[Evaluation of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in patients with neoplasms and hematologic diseases]

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a oncofetal glicoprotein, has been regarded as specific marker for colorectal cancer initially and restricted to the significance of tumor-associated antigen afterwards. Circulating CEA levels were determined in 47 patients with hematologic malignancies, resulting elevated in 10 (21%). The highest values had been discovered in a chronic lymphocitic leukemia complicated by primary hepatoma, causing the problem of the role played by the second tumor, likewise to another CEA-positive patient with the association "Hodgkin's disease-pancreatic carcinoma". The CEA employment had not been particularly satisfactory in the therapeutic monitoring and in the early detection of the relapses, in opposition to the results referred in the colorectal, mammary and bronchogenic carcinoma.